It was really easy getting through the border to Laos. We took a tuk tuk and then a bus through no mans land. I had lost my departure card but Josh talked rugby to the immigration guy so l managed to get off luckily. It seems in SEA you are are given a departure card along with your arrivals card so note to self keep a hold of it!

After getting through we were picked up by the Slow Boat company Shompoo and taken to to Mekong river in Huay Xai. We had pre-booked this slow boat which travels down the Mekong for two days to Luang Prabang. Even though it cost quite a bit, we definitely made the right choice choosing this company out of the 10 or so companies when we saw the cramped public boat and other competitors. The boat could take 40 people but we had about 20 which seems to be the norm. Lots of space to spread out and watch the Mekong drift by with Thailand on one side and Laos on the other.

Our guide was a little too enthusiastic on the mike at times, but the food was good and it was nice to just relax and watch the scenery. Laos is very lush and hilly with the odd water buffalo grazing on the riverbanks and the local hill tribes fishing in the brown Mekong which comes all the way from China down through Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia.

We watched the crazy speedboats zipping past where passengers have to wear helmets as there are so many accidents.

We stopped off at a hill tribe, the Loum who live on the riverbanks and have basic huts on stilts with no windows as they believe bad spirits will enter the windows. They live a very basic life although l did notice they had a satellite dish!

For the night we stopped at Pakbeng a small village on the Laos side of the river. Our room had an amazing view over the Mekong and it was fascinating watching the longboats pull in and wriggle their way between each other to tie up for the night.

The next day we carried on and made stop offs at the Pak Ou Caves which has thousands of Buddhas and is a significant religious site and also another village. In the village they make Lao whiskey which is 55% proof from rice with the addition of cobras or beetles. Josh had a go at the lethal brew minus the snakes and beetles.

Apparently just tasted like pure alcohol.

Luang Prabang is a pretty city nestled on the side of the meandering Mekong with a strong French colonial influence. Oh so nice to have croissants and baguettes. The Lao food as we were discovering was not nearly as nice as Thai and is quite bland. We weren't keen on the (sea) weed or the fish from the dirty Mekong so quite a bit of western fare has been had.

They have a fantastic night market with some truely beautiful handiworks and it is so hard not to buy up a heap but we have to be so strict with ourselves on our baggage limit.

More temples to explore and interesting museums.

We did a day trip to the Kuang Si Waterfalls which were stunning and it also includes the Bear Centre which is a sanctuary for Black Asiatic Bears.

On our last day we got up for morning Alms at 5am. For over 600 years, locals of this UNESCO World Heritage City have been waking up before dawn to prepare for "Tak Bat". As the sun rises, locals will take their spot on the sidewalk and wait for the procession of monks to start.

Hundreds of monks from the 35 temples of Luang Prabang walk in silence, meditating as they collect their daily alms from devotees. This is the Buddhist practice of making merit, a symbiotic relationship between the monks and alms givers.

By feeding the monks the lay people generate good karma and the monks grant merit to the devotees that counts towards their future lives. Pretty amazing experience.

We then took a four hour minibus to Vang Vieng. Squashed in a van going over hair raising mountains. Laos as a developing country, has terrible roads that if you are lucky are sealed and you have to navigate pot holes, cows, dogs, cats, chickens and crazy drivers.

Vang Vieng as we had read was originally a party town that had a lot of tourist deaths from excessive drinking and drugs while tubing down the Nam Song river. They have since cleaned up their act and there are only two bars to stop at along the river but there is still that party atmosphere to some degree with bars selling opium, nang (laughing gas), pot and lots else. The scenery surrounding the town is stunning with sheer mountains suddenly pushing upwards out of the earth with bright green paddy fields stretching out into the distance.

At a local lrish bar (go figure) we met up with two lovely ladies from Israel and Hungary who took us on the back of their motorbikes to one of the Waterfalls, Kaeng Nyui and to Blue Lagoon No 3. Josh was sure the locals were grilling rat at the falls haha. Yuval tried to give me a driving lesson on her motorbike but l am crap at that kind of thing and was hurtling down a gravel road hill and forgot how to use the brakes. That was the end of me on motorbikes in Laos l think. Poor Josh and Niki had a dog suddenly cross the road which they avoided thankfully, but resulted in them having a crash which left Josh's thigh pretty sore so it meant we missed out on tubing the next day sadly.

We left in a luxury bus on an easy four hour ride to Vientiane the capital of Laos. Vientiane we soon realised is a stop over city. Either for travellers going to Bangkok or to Hanoi. We are staying four days here, which is three days too long but it would be too much hassle and expense to change our flights and VISAs. So glad we decided not to do the 25 hour sleeper bus to Hanoi. We heard horrendous stories from travellers lying prone for 25 hours either having to spoon Laos farmers and curl up their toes in tiny foot wells.

We visited the COPE Centre (Cooperative Orthotic & Prosthetic Enterprise) which is the main source of artificial limbs, walking aids and wheelchairs in Laos. It was harrowing and sobering to read that Laos is the most bombed country in the world. The US bombed Laos for 10 years from 1973 with a raid every eight minutes releasing bombs which then released cluster bombs. Now there are thousands of UXOs (unexploded ordnance objects) that are scattered around the country. Farmers, children often are killed or maimed by these devices and a number of local and foreign organisations are trying to systematically clean up the country which will take a century to complete.

After miscalculating a distance we had an hours long dusty and bumpy ride via tuk tuk to a bizarre seemingly for tourists created Buddha park containing a couple hundred concrete Buddhas including a pumpkin structure which represents heaven and hell.

The next couple of days will be spent wandering about before we head off to Hanoi, Vietnam. We visited the National Museum where it was clearly stated many times about the level of feeling towards the US. The phrase "the US imperialists and their puppets" was everywhere. Glad I'm not American in this country!

Last night we had the craziest thunder storm, l have never heard thunder so loud and can now totally understand why people are scared of thunder and lightening. Really quite incredible.